Automotive Imaging System Including an Electronic Image Sensor Having a Sparse Color Filter Array

1. An automobile comprising: a frame; and an imaging system supported by the frame and including: a camera including a lens and an image sensor having a sparse color filter array, the camera configured to generate image data based on light incident on the sensor, the lens having an f-stop higher than f/2.4; a controller configured to generate an image using the image data; and a display device configured to display the image.

2. The automobile of claim 1 , wherein an integration time of the camera is about 30 milliseconds or less.

3. The automobile of claim 1 , wherein the f-stop of the lens is higher than f/2.8.

4. The automobile of claim 3 , wherein the sparse color filter array is a 4×4 sparse color filter array and an integration time of the camera is about 30 milliseconds.

5. The automobile of claim 4 , wherein the f-stop of the lens is f/4.

6. The automobile of claim 1 , wherein the f-stop of the lens is f/2.8 and the sparse color filter array is a 3×3 sparse color filter array.

7. The automobile of claim 1 , wherein an integration time of the camera about 15 milliseconds or less.

8. The automobile of claim 7 , wherein the sparse color filter array is a 3×3 sparse color filter array.

9. The automobile of claim 1 , wherein the lens is a fisheye lens.

10. The automobile of claim 9 , wherein the image sensor includes a plurality of pixels and the sparse color filter array includes a repeating mosaic of color filters arranged in a pattern such that the mosaics are more highly concentrated near a center of the image sensor than near edges of the image sensor.

11. An automobile imaging system comprising: a camera including a lens and an image sensor having a sparse color filter array, the camera configured to generate image data based on light incident on the sensor, the lens having an f-stop higher than f/2.4; a controller configured to generate an image using the image data; and a display device configured to display the image.

12. The automobile imaging system of claim 11 , wherein an integration time of the camera is about 30 milliseconds or less.

13. The automobile imaging system of claim 11 , wherein the f-stop of the lens is higher than f/2.8.

14. The automobile imaging system of claim 13 , wherein the sparse color filter array is a 4×4 sparse color filter array and an integration time of the camera is about 30 milliseconds.

15. The automobile imaging system of claim 14 , wherein the f-stop of the lens is f/4.

16. The automobile imaging system of claim 11 , wherein the f-stop of the lens is f/2.8 and the sparse color filter array is a 3×3 sparse color filter array.

17. The automobile imaging system of claim 11 , wherein an integration time of the camera about 15 milliseconds or less.

18. The automobile imaging system of claim 17 , wherein the sparse color filter array is a 3×3 sparse color filter array.

19. The automobile imaging system of claim 11 , wherein the lens is a fisheye lens.

20. The automobile imaging system of claim 19 , wherein the image sensor includes a plurality of pixels and the sparse color filter array includes a repeating mosaic of color filters arranged in a pattern such that the mosaics are more highly concentrated near a center of the image sensor than near edges of the image sensor.